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Samsung’s Foldable Phone Is the $1,980 Galaxy Fold

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Re: Samsung’s Foldable Phone Is the $1,980 Galaxy Fold

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kindles are cheap and light, if digital reading is your goal.

I often read PDF versions of books (especially technical books) or PDFs of academic papers etc I've never been able to view these properly on a kindle. Well, last time I tried anyway, is it better now?

Kobo Aura One seems to be the right size for your use case.

Re: Samsung’s Foldable Phone Is the $1,980 Galaxy Fold

#72

> run three apps at once There are 3 numbers with programs - 0, 1, and infinity (or, more pragmatically, "run out of memory"). Programs that have arbitrary limits like "3" are just wrong. It's like the filename length limitations in operating systems. No matter how long they are, they are arbitrary and somebody overflows them. The real limit should be the size of the disk drive.

They seem to have made this choice to ensure a quality UI experience

Re: Samsung’s Foldable Phone Is the $1,980 Galaxy Fold

#73

Really impressed that Samsung has matured the display manufacturing process so much that they can launch a mass market foldable screen. Also, surprised to hear the speaker say 7nm processor in the Fold. I didn't know the technology to fabricate 7nm chips existed.

Not only that, the S10 announcement shows they can put cameras under the screens too. Oo

Re: Samsung’s Foldable Phone Is the $1,980 Galaxy Fold

#74

> run three apps at once There are 3 numbers with programs - 0, 1, and infinity (or, more pragmatically, "run out of memory"). Programs that have arbitrary limits like "3" are just wrong. It's like the filename length limitations in operating systems. No matter how long they are, they are arbitrary and somebody overflows them. The real limit should be the size of the disk drive.

This is a user interface decision, not a programming decision.

Allowing simultaneous viewing of arbitrarily many apps may not be a problem technically, but it would make the system more complex to use, with more possible interpretations of actions. It's a tradeoff.

Re: Samsung’s Foldable Phone Is the $1,980 Galaxy Fold

#76
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would have expected Apple to test its keyboard designs in the same way - we know how that turned out. Ironically - if that's the word - I think a larger laptop format device with a tactile folding hinged screen would be more interesting than this enormo-phone. This device will probably sell moderately in the nouveau Asian markets, but I doubt it's going to be a storming success, or the template for the next gener…

They probably did...in an artificial environment with dust and crumbs. Or they figured they were at an "acceptable" failure rate without considering how much more severe the cost to repair was. I think it's worth noting that the issue with their keyboard was only really known of after the keyboard was brought to the MacBook Pro. It didn't occur at a high enough rate on the 12" MacBook for it to be publicized.

I’ve been through four keyboard failures, and my experience has been that the keys over the parts of the computer that get hot are more likely to fail. I suspect it takes (or at least is more likely with) a combination of heat and contaminates, which might be less likely on the 12”.

Re: Samsung’s Foldable Phone Is the $1,980 Galaxy Fold

#77

While I won't be an early adopter for this, I think the concept is great. The things I'll be watching out for if this takes off: 1) How does the screen holdup in daily use? Does the Infinity Flex Display get work out or glitchy at the hinge after 10,000 folds? 2) Will the device get thinner? This is currently the size of two phones stacked on top of each other. I can't imagine carrying that in my pocket long-term. 3)…

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Re: Samsung’s Foldable Phone Is the $1,980 Galaxy Fold

#78
Honestly, if this is even vaguely usable, it's going to replace my phone and my tablet, simply by reducing the screen size for both while still having some modern hardware behind it. I find 5" phones to be just slightly too large to comfortably use one-handed (and forget about the larger flagship phones that come out these days). I at least have some faith that I'll be able to reach across the 4.6" screen, although who knows how annoying the large vertical bezels will be.

The tablet side is actually more exciting to me, completely independent of the folding feature. I still don't have a good replacement for a Nexus 7, and this looks like the first tablet that's come out since 2013 that's both close to it in size and on par or better in terms of hardware. The N7 was basically the perfect form factor for my hands, and since I finally gave up on it I've been using an 8.4" tablet that's just narrow enough to hold in one hand but more than uncomfortable enough that I still complain about it years later. Even if the Fold is unusable as a phone, I might spring for one anyway as a pure tablet replacement. If it's also comfortable enough to carry and use as a phone, that's just gravy.

Re: Samsung’s Foldable Phone Is the $1,980 Galaxy Fold

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, probably not, but it could quite plausibly replace an iPad Mini. I could see even replacing a midsize tablet, for someone for whom that amount of bulk elimination merits a compromise.

At around 4x the price? It's not replacing anything.

At the current $2k pricing it would certainly be an upgrade, not a lateral replacement.

Re: Samsung’s Foldable Phone Is the $1,980 Galaxy Fold

#80

While I won't be an early adopter for this, I think the concept is great. The things I'll be watching out for if this takes off: 1) How does the screen holdup in daily use? Does the Infinity Flex Display get work out or glitchy at the hinge after 10,000 folds? 2) Will the device get thinner? This is currently the size of two phones stacked on top of each other. I can't imagine carrying that in my pocket long-term. 3)…

4) do the two screens wear uniformly?

5) what effect does putting a hinge in the center of the device have on the thermal capacity of the unit (thermal capacity is almost more important for performace than ram on a modern mobile computer architectures)

6) what are the long term ramifications of splitting the battery cell into two halves. It must be less capacity due to the extra packaging and safety overhead.

I could go on.

It’s certainly not clear to me that having a mode which trades XY for Z is a win.

But it’s an interesting experiment. It will be entertaining to watch.

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